Selling the Bosbaan

The Netherlands’ Bosbaan River rowing venue in Amsterdam is being sold one metre at a time all in the name of rowing.

As Amsterdam gears up for this year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships, Dutch minds have turned to creativity for their fundraising ideas. Anyone can be the proud “owner” of a piece of the 2,000 metre Bosbaan racing course for only ?50. The official web site www.wu23.org explains that every metre of the course is to be sold individually and can be seen as a year so a special event may decide which year you choose. “Like the year you started rowing, your year of birth? or the year you married.”

Participants will also get access to the grandstands at the Championships and receive the start lists and results during the event. On finals day there will be a raffle for an extra prize.

To buy a metre you must go to the web site and set up an account using your name or choose to do it anonymously.

This is the first year the Under 23 event will be run as a World Rowing championship level regatta. At FISA’s 2005 Extraordinary Congress last month the World Rowing Under 23 Regatta was almost unanimously voted to gain championship status and will now be called the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

To be held in Amsterdam from 21 – 24 July 2005, this will be the second year that the event has been under the FISA umbrella. Originally called the Seniors Match and then the Nations Cup, the event dates back to 1976 when a need for a bridge between junior rowing and the elite level was identified. It became a FISA event in 2004 and at Amsterdam the name will change again to indicate the new championship status.

The Bosbaan is the oldest manmade rowing course in the world and after refurbishments it reopened in 2002 as an eight-laned Olympic standard course.

For more information about the 2005 World Rowing Under 23 Championships please click here.

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